NWA-PCUG 04/2000 NewsLetter Article 18861 N. Hwy 112, Springdale, AR 72762-9303 ATTENTION - ATTENTION, Editors Last month I ask for information about your user group from those that I have not been in contact with. Only four editors contacted me. I would like to have statistical information about your user group for the distribution page on my Web site. If you have already given me that information, please ignore this and my thinks to you. Check the distribution page at [http://www.dealsguy.com] to see what I have so far. If you are not listed on my Web site please let me know the following information (if you don't mind having it posted there: The exact name of your user group (and its URL if you have a Web site) How many members you have How many newsletters you print If you put the newsletter in PDF or some other format on your web site If you include hot links for the URLs in the column If all members are sent the newsletter by post office or if some receive it via e-mail Thanks for your help and I'm hoping that distribution page will help convince vendors to give us deals. This column should contain about 1694 words including this preliminary message. *From the Dealsguy, Bob Click, Greater Orlando Computer User Group If you're thinking about a motherboard upgrade only, consider this: many of the new motherboards now offer only PCI slots. That might mean that if your old motherboard has any ISA boards in it, they would be unusable in the new motherboard unless it has ISA slots as well as PCI. What a great excuse for upgrading other peripherals. Like I always say, do your homework. Wish I always took my own advice. How about this for a vicious circle ... I bought a Matsonic motherboard for a good price at Comdex a couple years ago that gave me problems and eventually died. Since it was guaranteed for two years, I sent it back to the company via US Postal Service insured. After no response from Matsonic, I inquired at the post office. I was told to obtain a letter from the company saying they never received the package. Then I could apply for the insurance. I called the company, and after persisting, I was asked who signed for it, but was told, point blank, that without a return authorization, I was probably out of luck. Since I hadn't asked for a return receipt, I didn't know who had signed and received no cooperation. Back at the Post Office, I was told that an insured package had to have been signed for. To find out who it was, I must apply for that information at a cost of $7.00 to research it. All that runaround because I didn't spend the extra money for a return receipt. I seem to learn everything the hard way. No doubt it was signed for so, forget the insurance. I think I can forget any action from Matsonic as well. I won't forget that name very soon. Perhaps next month I'll talk about Best Buy with whom I am in a dispute right now, and it looks like I may take them to court over the warranty on my laptop. Now, let's get on with the column. *Attention Mac People, This Just In From Aladdin. "Attention Mac UG Leaders: Aladdin has teamed up with eMacsoftware.com to put together an Aladdin User Group Web page with special pricing for user groups. These offers are only available to UGs and their members!! Spread the word quickly, as the Aladdin pricing and special bundles are only good through February 29, 2000. Visit [http://www.emacsoftware.com/emac/cd.asp?cd=AHGY2MBTA] to receive special UG pricing on Aladdin software!! All products are available for immediate download and use. Again, these special offers expire February 29, 2000, so act now!! The Aladdin pricing via eMacsoftware's special UG Web site is as follows: StuffIt Deluxe 5.5: $49.95 Spring Cleaning 3.0: $29.95 Aladdin FlashBack 1.1: $19.95 DragStrip 3.7.1: $14.95 MacTicker 1.6: $19.95 NEW! IntelliNews 2.0: $14.95 MacTicker & IntelliNews bundle: $29.95 - A SUPER DEAL! StuffIt Deluxe 5.5 & DragStrip bundle: $59.95 - A SUPER DEAL! Visit [http://www.emacsoftware.com/emac/cd.asp?cd=AHGY2MBTA] to take advantage of these special offers!!" Their Web address is [http://www.aladdinsys.com/] for more info. * Assistance For Web Surfers "SurfSaver 2.0" from "askSam" simplifies gathering information from the Web and turning it into a searchable database on your PC. New feature lets you save selected links (or an entire page), and all linked pages, easily turning any list of hypertext links on the Web into a searchable database on your computer. SurfSaver 2.0 includes several powerful new features for organizing Web pages. In addition, the new version is available as a free download at [http://www.surfsaver.com] thanks to advertising included in the software. Download multiple levels of a Web site and browse (or search) the site off- line. Organize information using a Filing Cabinet and Folder metaphor. Create your own filing cabinets, and place folders in these cabinets, then search across multiple folders in multiple filing cabinets. A professional version, SurfSaver Pro, adds the ability to share SurfSaver folders in a network. SurfSaver Pro does not contain advertising and costs $29.95 per user. I'll.check on the possibility of a special for the Pro version next month. Visit askSam at [http://www.askSam.com/ or call 1-800-800- 1997 for more info. My thanks to Bea McKinney of askSam for notifying me of this. *Things You Didn't Want to Know When You Were a Kid, Besides Other Stuff Jay Hogan sent me this one and I don't know his user group. Go to [http://www.learn2.com] to find out all the things your parents didn't remember to teach you. In fact, send your kids there because one of the courses teaches you how to brush your teeth. I didn't have time to dig down, but he said they offer user group discounts. Thanks Jay. . *Help For Photoshop Users O'Reilly & Associates have announced the release of a new edition of the book "Photoshop for the Web." In this new edition, author Mikkel Aaland includes important new techniques and workarounds for the latest release of Photoshop version 5.5. You can check their Web site to find out more. [http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/photoweb2/] Remember that O'Reilly Publishing always offers user group discounts. Free GIFs are available at [http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/photoweb2/chapter/ch03.html]. Call O'Reilly & Associates at 1-800-998-9938 and mention your user group, or e-mail them at [order@oreilly.com] *Let's Continue With The Free ISP Discussion I Started Last Month *NetGenie This service hopes to have a new promotion started by February, so check it out at [http://www.netgenie.com/] which will be about when you read this. I was unable to get any more information from their site. *Juno Has Joined The Crowd Yes, the venerable Juno is now offering free access to the Internet. A person I talked to says it has its' quirks but it works. You have to develop a technique for using your browsers or it cuts you off. That was from just one person I knew using the free version. I didn't check their access numbers but I think Juno will do OK in that regard because of it has been around. I assume from what it says that there is a better selection of access numbers for the Premium version. The regular service is free and offers free "online" tech support and 12 megs (more than my Mindspring) for your Web site. The Premium version costs $9.95 per month and offers free phone tech support. Both offer file attachments and fax and voicemail capability in the mailbox. Look for it at [http://www.juno.com]. Current subscribers need not fill out any forms. *How About a Blue-Light Special! You guessed it, Kmart has enlisted the help of Yahoo for it's new FREE Internet service. While it is certainly meant for your shopping, it actually looked pretty good. I felt it had a fairly good selection of access numbers, especially for rural towns. Blue Light also offers e-mail accounts and space for your home page. They even offer tech support by e-mail or a phone call. There is not much information on the Web site but it costs nothing to try it out. You can even download it to floppies instead of your hard drive. With the help of Yahoo, you should find plenty of resources. You can download the software, or order it at Bluelight CD Request, P.O. Box 468, Lake Orion, MI. 48361. Kmart is so well known that they wouldn't actually need much advertising. When you see the familiar red Kmart logo flash by, it is a sort of "subliminal" reminder. The same as when your car seems to pull it on its own when you pass your favorite store (or tavern). *Tritium Network Tritium offers free access to the Internet through a nationwide network of local access numbers. You can find this one at [http://www.tritium.net]. I found access numbers only in the major cities. Only supports Windows presently. Offers limited tech support. Supports 56K/V90 modems. They plan to increase access number availability. E-mail accounts available. *Junp.to/FreeISP This one may have been sent to other user group officers when it was sent to me recently. I thought it had an impressive Web site. Look this one up at [http://jump.to/FreeISP]. This site is both comprehensive and up-to-date (their words) and there's also a good Web ring for Free Internet Access: [http://move.to/FreeISP]. This site is very interesting, so I suggest you visit it and draw your own conclusions. It actually lists dozens of free ISPs that you can check out, as well as many other free services. Some are just for a certain area. One service listing surprised me, but I guess it shouldn't have these days. You'll see it, I'm sure. There is plenty of information, too much to categorize here. *Last Minute Special From JASC Just in time for tax season, if you upgrade to JASC Paint Shop Pro 6 and buy the book "Creating Paint Shop Pro Web Graphics" for only $79, you'll get TaxCut, the #1 Rated tax prep software from H&R Block FREE! This offer is a $114 value - a savings of over 30% off the suggested price! To order, go to: http://www.jasc.com/jascstore/22722 This month's column was sure done hastily but I hope you get something out of it. Next month I'll continue with some free ISPs and perhaps even talk about an upcoming FREE DSL service. My thanks to Central Florida Computer Society President "Bud" Stonaker for searching out a few of these and passing them on to me. This column is written to make user group members aware of special pricing I have found or arranged, and my comments should not be interpreted to encourage, or discourage, the purchase of products, no matter how enthused I sound. Bob (The Cheapskate) Click [dealsguy@mindspring.com]. Visit my Web site at [http://www.dealsguy.com] for past columns.